Metamodernity is a new cultural trend, worldview or quality that aims to bring together the values and learning from modernity and postmodernity. Brendan Graham Dempsey is one of the vivid explorers, thinkers, and critics of this new movement. His special interest lies in the relevance of these ideas for our understanding and practice of spirituality.
Brendan Dempsey has a rich background in theology and applies this to find a way to reimagine religion in a time of global crisis. But he is not only theoretically reflecting about this, at his Sky Meadow Retreat Center he is engaging practically in an experiment of metamodern practice and community.
Metamodern spirituality is taking seriously the criticism of postmodernity but tries to find a new meaning and relevance of the sacred for our lives and culture. In an interview with evolve Brendan says:
“Metamodern spirituality is a reconstructive endeavor. It is a sort of spiritual practice that invites us to reconceive of grand narratives and holistic meaning-making from a self-aware stance. We are earnest and sincere by trying to creatively generate new symbolic forms and mythic images that we can use in genuine reverence of the beauty and profundity of reality. At the same time, we’re maintaining a certain reflective distance from them because they are constructed artifacts of our own creative imagination.
This Metamodern Mythopoeia is part of a broader way of thinking about this particular moment as an evolutionary moment in history in which the notions of the sacred are undergoing a reconstruction. Indeed, we can recognize that reconstructive efforts have always been underway in history, but now it's happening at a moment when we are self-consciously aware of it. We can see this as an invitation to get involved in that process and participate in it consciously and attempt to be the artists and the poets of God. Viewed from that lens, it's not just a matter of art or imagination, it's an almost prophetic calling to reimagine religion for the future.”
At our evolve Live event with Brandan Dempsey we will explore together with the participants the qualities of metamodern spiritual thinking and practice. The dialogue itself as a practice of open, meaningful inquiry will lead us together to new territory.
